Torchwick MD
by Vincent Van
Summary: Definitely AU one shot, where the villains from RWBY are doctors, in this installment Dr. Roman Torchwick has to teach a class of young doctors about diagnostics, so how better to than the classic "three guys walk into" scenario. rated M for Mnarcotics and Mlanguage and Msuggestive content. but no Mlemons. Enjoy, or whatever. In honor of volume 2.


**I hope people enjoy this oneshot thing I'm trying out. This is if characters from RWBY were doctors.**

Dr. Torchwick

"He is NOT sick." An angry Torchwick spouted to Cinder.

"Doctor Holliday is throwing up, he can't lecture." Cinder explained.

"Did you see the spew?" He questioned, "Either he's lying or he's dying."

"I'll give you that thing you've been asking for all week." She relinquished. "I know you'd rather listen to yourself talk than listening to patients. Class starts in 20 minutes."

Torchwick limped off to the class.

"Torchwick, there's someone here to see you." A nurse called.

"I'm busy."

"Roman?" A woman called his name, a woman he hadn't seen for years.

"Hi Selma." He greeted in a soft voice.

"How's life?" She responded.

"Have you ever seen those girls gone wild videos." He answered in a cocky voice.

She smirked. "You've been doing, or you've been watching?"

She continued talking. "I've missed you… I need your help."

She handed him a folder.

"Who?" was all he asked.

"My husband." She answered sheepishly.

"Looks like, indigestion… or maybe a kidney stone." He diagnosed sarcastically.

"Did you not think I was going to get married?" She asked.

"Not to someone so poorly endowed." He said loudly, as he caned away. "Judging by the size of his pancreas."

"There's no kidney stone, no indigestion." She argued while following him. "We've been to three hospitals; none of them have found anything."

"Maybe there's nothing to be found."

Selma asked him. "Didn't you say 'don't trust doctors that like puppies, and long walks in the rain'?"

"Well, the walks are out."

She grabbed his cane arm. "I've been around you long enough to know when something's up. His mood's changed, and he's acting strange, disconnected."

"Then, he's clearly got a neurological component, or having an affair."

She gave a worried look. "No, he's sick. I know you're not too busy. Can you help him?"

"I'm not too busy, I'm not sure I want him to live." He turned around, "It's good seeing you again."

"Three guys walk into a hospital with leg pain."

A youth raises his hand.

"I'm not going to like you, am I?" Roman asked.

He answered the first question. "The most likely cause is muscle strain, I recommend heat and rest."

"Good, about half my cases involve musculoskeletal problems, about 12% are pains caused by pregnancies, and the rest are vehicular accidents." He gave a look around the room, the students taking notes. "But I said three people, that's six legs… so three are from stress, two were in car accidents, and one leg is pregnant." The room stopped and paid him all their attention.

"What were they doing when their pain presented itself?" A young woman asked.

"I have no idea."

A Faunus gave a question. "You didn't ask, take histories?"

"Of course, but that only tells me what they said happened."

"Case one, a farmer says he was fixing a fence, he reports a tightness in the ankle and loss of muscle control."

"Case two, volleyball practice, coach thought it was a pulled muscle."

"Case three, we've got Cinder, golfing."

"You treated Cinder?" the first young man asked.

"No, but I needed someone to hide their identities, I figured she would be great, plus she's a great golfer. In less than two hours, one of these three will be tossed out for faking to get narcotics; one will be very close to death. Any guesses on which is which?"

"Case one, did you hike to the fence, and how far?"

The farmer answered, "Yes, it's about a half a mile."

"And where is the pain localized?"

"It started just above the ankle and is radiating up."

"So what should we do first?"

Jeff, the first young man answered. "Take a family history."

"Leg pain? That's a short list. Long story short, no history."

Jill the young woman answered. "Could be a blood issue, let's get a blood test."

Benjie the Faunus butted in. "And an MRI…"

"MRI or a pet scan?" Jill responded.

"Buzz, thanks for playing, now he's dead."

"We didn't even have any time to run any tests." Jeff complained.

"You had enough time to look at the leg." Roman looked over to the farmer, who was now Cinder.

"I thought we were starting with the farmer?" Jill asked.

"We are, but I figure if we're going to look at a leg it might as well be Cinder's, right?"

"I need you to take off your pants." Farmer Cinder took off her pants, Roman got in close for inspection… "Aha, puncture."

Jill immediately answered. "snake bite."

"That would be my guess."

"The farmer didn't know he was bitten by a snake?" Benjie asked.

"That's what he said."

Jeff asked. "What kind of snake was it?"

"You want me to tell you what kind of snake it was based on the puncture wound?"

"Well how else are we supposed to know?" Jeff asked.

"Oh there are people for that."

Dr. Mercury asked Dr. Adam "Shouldn't we wait for the humane society?"

Dr. Adam responded. "We don't have time." As he opened the fence gate, a dog came up and barked at the two men, frightening them into waiting.

"And while we wait on the humane society, let's check in on the volleyball player."

"You have tendonitis." Dr. Emerald told the volleyball player.

"How old is this volleyball player, I mean they aren't really a forty year old man?" Jill asked.

"Does it matter, a leg is a leg."

"Well I was just worried that…" Jill started.

"Would you be more worried if they were younger?"

"Well obviously we should care about all our patients no matter what age." Jeff answered.

"Tchyeah. I saw the way you were looking at Emerald, stay away, she's mine."

"The actual patient is sixteen, and this is what happens when a doctor cares too much."

Emerald was giving Torchwick the rundown. "I went back three generations no trace of degenerative disease, but there's this boy at school on the volleyball team, and they made out at a party, but now he won't talk to her, and his friend at school says he doesn't like her and never did."

"You got all this from an examination of the knee?"

"I think she's depressed." Emerald confided.

"She doesn't have tendonitis?"

"She does have tendonitis." Emerald clarified.

She's depressed about having tendonitis?"

"No, she's depressed for the same reason she has tendonitis."

"Not the boy?"

"No, she knows the boy's a jerk, but yet she's depressed. I found a nodule."

"Ah, problems with the Thyroid gland causes depression can cause problems like tendonitis."

"I'll run the tests." Emerald says as she leaves.

"So because this doctor took such an interest in this girl, she found out she had a Thyroid condition?" Jill asked.

"No, because this person took such an interest in this girl, she found a small nodule. Which in reality proved nothing, but gave us no choice but to put her through a painful and expensive procedure." Dr. Emerald was giving the girl the procedure.

"Here's how a well-adjusted doctor handles a case."

Torchwick was performing some simple tests on a pantless Cinder.

"Can I put my pants back on?" Cinder asked.

"I'd rather you didn't."

"Wait, which Cinder is this?" Jill asked.

"The first one, the golfer."

"Then why is she not wearing pants?" Jeff asked.

Roman gave him the greatest look in history, one that words cannot describe.

He then told Cinder what he discovered from his tests. "You have decreased reflexes in your Patellar tendon. Anyone?"

Benjie answered shakily. "Slipped disc?"

"Could be."

"How bad does it hurt?" He asked Cinder.

She answered in such a convincing manner. "Really, really bad."

"Yeah."

Jill piped up. "It doesn't seem real. Is she the one faking?"

"Well for goodness sakes, she's here to play out my fantasy, not because she's Meryl Streep." He then gave a look to Jill.

Jill responded by giving him a disapproving look.

"Fine." Suddenly in Cinder's place was an ordinary guy.

"What the hell is wrong with me?" He yelled. "Do something! Argh!" He couldn't take the pain in his leg and kept screaming.

"Too much pain to be a slipped disc. It could be herniated and pinching the nerve root." Jill offered.

"Or it could be reverb pain from his groin." Jeff continued.

"Sir, are you getting pain in your…" Roman was cut off by the man's screams of pain.

"He's curling it's not the back." Jeff answered worriedly.

"Where are you getting…"

"Help ME!" He screamed again.

"He's not going to tell us anything if we don't get him out of pain give him 50 milligrams of Demerol." Benjie said.

Jill countered, "We don't know his history, and he could be allergic."

"What do I do?"

Benjie pointed out. "We can't diagnose him while he's screaming."

"Better than killing him with painkillers." Jill argued.

The man took the vial out of Roman's hand and injected it himself. All three students were speechless.

"Apparently, he's not allergic."

"Thank you, it feels a lot better now." He said while dropping the vial on the ground.

"We screwed up." Jill said dejectedly.

"No, you did exactly what his attending did."

"And that was the proper way to handle the case?" Benjie asked.

"Yeah."

Benjie's voice became caustic. "The guy used him as a dealer."

"You're going to see a lot of drug seeking behavior in your practice, there's a reason, it works."

"Meanwhile, back on the farm."

Dr. Mercury was on the phone. "Yeah, Timber Rattlesnake."

Dr. Emerald told the nurse at the hospital. "Four vials of antivenin." She then asked the farmer, who was a man again. "Hey, how you doing?"

"Alright." He answered.

"This will start making you feel better really fast." Emerald comforted him as she injected him with the antivenin.

The farmer started gasping.

"He's having an allergic reaction." Emerald warned. "Paddles."

All the students were dead silent and giving him their full attention. "What's say we take a five minute break, get some coffee, and go pee?" Roman offered.

In the hallway during the break, Torchwick was sitting with a fellow Doctor.

Dr. Junior asked "You didn't think she was going to get married?"

"She asked the same thing."

Junior asked another rhetorical question. "Aaand, you're not going to treat him?"

"There's probably nothing wrong with him."

"Oh that makes sense, just using the old 'sick husband routine' to get back together with you. You think this is easy for her? The only reason she'd be anywhere near you is because she's desperate."

"So I should help her because she hates me?"

"She doesn't hate you, she loves you, she just can't stand to be around you." Junior offered in pseudo wisdom.

Jeff, Jill, and Benjie all came through the door to talk to Torchwick. "Dr. Torchwick, it's almost been six minutes."

"The volleyball player was reacting to the treatment as one would expect having tendonitis."

Benjie interrupted. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What happened to the snake bite guy? I don't really care about the volleyball player."

"What if I told you the volleyball player had a sudden massive stroke?"

"Really?" Benjie asked in disbelief.

"No."

Benjie's face became very long.

"But that would make you interested, right? One of her T4 tests came back low, not quite as interesting, but it has the side benefit of being true."

Benjie interrupted again. "You said the thyroid biopsy was a wasted test."

"Nnnno, I said she put a person with tendonitis through a painful and expensive test, as it turned out the patient had tendonitis and a thyroid condition."

Emerald walked over to the volleyball player. "We're going to start you on Thyroxin."

"Thank you." The volleyball player thanked before she took the pills.

"So… that's it?" Benjie asked.

"You were right the first time, snake bite guy is more interesting, gross actually."

Snake bite guy's leg flesh was starting get eaten away.

Dr. Adam put the team of doctors up to speed. "The patient responded to the epinephrine, but his leg continues to deteriorate."

Dr. Mercury offered an explanation. "Maybe the snake wrangler was mistaken?"

"He sent us a full report. It's a Timber rattlesnake." Dr. Adam continued as he gave Torchwick the report.

"No it's not, did you notice the volume?"

Dr. Adam answered. "No, I skipped over that, along with the gender and the coloring, to get right to the name of the snake."

"200 milligrams, our guy got bit less than four hours ago. There's no way a snake regenerates that much venom that quickly."

Jeff asked a question. "We're supposed to know how fast snakes make their venom?"

"No, unless you get a patient bit by one, then it might be helpful. So what do we do now?"

Jill answered. "He must have been bitten by a different snake; we go back and find it."

"Unless you go online and find out there are only three venomous snakes commonly found around here; The copperhead, timber rattler, and coral. The copperhead and timber rattler venoms would both respond to the one we gave the guy."

Jill asked, "Then we give him the antivenin for the other one?"

"That sounded like a question."

Jeff said, "Well we can't just blindly give him the other one, especially considering the last one almost killed him. You said only three types are commonly found, what about one that is uncommon? We go back and find the right snake."

"Very good, odds are by the time you get back, the autopsy will tell you what kind of snake it is."

Jill asked again, "So we DO give him the antivenin for the other one?"

"Again, was that a question? I asked what you would do, it seems unfair for you to ask me what you should do."

"Who gives the guy the other antivenin?" Torchwick asked, and waited for about half of the students to raise their hands. "Who goes find the snake?" again about half the students raised their hands.

Benjie then spoke again. "I assume one choice saves him, while the other kills him."

"That's usually the way it works in the leg turning black stage."

Jill asked a question this time. "So half of us killed him, and the other half saved his life?"

Torchwick nodded his head.

Jeff started. "We can't be blamed for…"

"I'm sure this goes against everything you've been taught, but right and wrong do exist just because you don't know what the right answer is, even if there's no way you could know what the right answer is doesn't make your answer right or even okay, it's much simpler than that, it's just plain wrong. We gave the guy the antivenin."

As the medicine entered the man's body everyone was silent and at the ready, he seemed normal and Torchwick walked out of the hospital room.

"It hurts again." The addict in pain said.

"He came back?" Jill asked.

"On average, drug addicts are stupid." Torchwick said as he popped two pills into his mouth.

"I'd call the cops." Benjie said.

"Would you? A lot of doctors wouldn't risk their career on a hunch."

Benjie continued. "I mean, I know it's not a hunch the guy wants drugs."

"Well even drug addicts get sick, in fact for some reason they tend to get sick more often than non-drug addicts. Luckily, you don't have to play your hunch, there's a faster way, my preference is urine testing."

Roman wheeled the chair he was in over to the front desk, and found a piece of paper and some crayons.

Benjie pointed out the obvious again. "But we already know he has drugs in his system."

"That's not what I'm looking for."

Torchwick was back in the hospital with the man. "We're going to put this hard rubber tube up your urethra and into your bladder; it may be a little uncomfortable."

"Shouldn't I be getting some sort of anesthetic?" The man asked as he cringed in pain.

"We're concerned about allergic reactions today."

Torchwick rifled through the desk, and found some pictures of Doctor Holliday's kids. "The guy can handle a rod up his penis for half an hour he's really sick."

Benjie countered. "Or he's really dosing."

"There are easier ways to get drugs," He said while pulling a coffee mug that said world's greatest dad from the desk, "Other hospitals for example." Roman then stood up taking the mug into the hall with him and saying, "The volleyball player is not responding to treatment," He raised his voice as he walked further and further away, "At least we think she's not responding because she's getting worse." He then actually started shouting, "Can you still hear me?"

"No." Benjie stated.

"A little." Jill defended.

"Not really." Jeff confirmed.

Roman was now filling the mug with water from the fountain talking quietly to himself. "If you can't hear me, then how did you know what I asked?"

Emerald was giving her a needle into her arm.

"Ow!" She yelped.

"I'm sorry, I'll try to be careful." Emerald was just barely even touching her.

"No!" She was shaking to keep her off.

"Susan!" Emerald commanded.

"Not her real name." Roman yelled from the hall, having just finished getting his water.

Emerald was talking to her worriedly. "Susan I barely touched you."

"It hurts SO much." Susan said in horrible pain.

Emerald was explaining it to the rest of her team. "Hypersensitivity to touch."

Mercury was still confused. "Her calcium up?"

"Lab over 16." Emerald reported.

"The question is why, the likely suspects?"

Mercury offered, "Parathyroid adenoma."

Emerald said, "Kidney problems."

Adam answered, "FID intoxication."

Mercury continued, "Parathyroid?"

Adam shut it down, "caused by our treatment."

Jill piped up, "Can you slow down?"

Torchwick took a drink of the water. His face turned queer and he spit the water back into the mug.

Roman continued in a very slow voice. "The ad-en-oma is most likely. Check her P-T-H, phos-phor-us, and Io-nized cal-ci-um."

"Okay, that's enough about the volleyball player, what's up with the farmer?" Roman asked still in front of his team.

All three doctors turned to look at him with puzzled looks on their faces. "What farmer?"

"Snake bite guy, oh right, you guys don't know about it, he doesn't get bit until three months after we treat the volleyball player. Luckily it's been well established that time is not a fixed construct. His condition is not improving, give him a double dosage."

"Already did." Dr. Adam informed Roman.

"There's another antivenin it's not as effective but…"

"Already tried it." Dr. Mercury confirmed.

"How about the stuff he was allergic too?"

Emerald responded. "Already gave it to him with high doses of steroids, nothing's working."

"What does that add up to?"

Jill answered. "The wrong snake?"

"We tried every other type of antivenin."

Jill asked. "We're too late?"

"Yep. He's dying. His wife's here, finally found a babysitter. Who wants to let 'em know? Just kidding. "

Jill was confused by this. "He's not dying?"

"No, he's dying, there's no wife and kid, which makes the breaking the news thing way easier. Oh yeah, one more piece of news, the drug addict is peeing blood."

After sitting down at the desk and pulling out the crayons Roman decided to change the subject. "How do they teach you to tell somebody they're dying? It's kind of like teaching architects why their building fell down. Did you role play and stuff?"

Jeff answered. "Yeah, one of us gives the bad news, and one of us gets the bad news."

"What do you have to do to get an A in 'You're dying 101'? They grade you on gentleness and supportiveness, a scale for measuring compassion? This buddy of mine, I gotta pay him ten bucks everytime someone says thank you. Imagine that, he's so good people thank him for telling them they're dying." While saying all of this, Roman was coloring some picture on a piece of paper. "That looks brown. I don't get thanked that often."

"You're dying." He bluntly told the snake bite guy. "In a few hours. There's nothing we can do except deal with the pain."

"Well I need to go home." The farmer said.

Roman shook his head. "You're not going home."

"My dog?" He asked unsure. "What will happen to my dog?"

Emerald was giving Susan a scan on her neck. "No adenoma, her neck's clean."

"Wait, this guy's dying, and all he cares about is his dog?" Benjie asks.

"Any of you guys go the dog route in your improv sessions? It's a basic truth of the human condition that everybody lies; the only variable is about what. The only good thing about telling someone they're dying is that it tends to focus their priorities, find out what matters to them, what they're willing to die for, what they're willing to lie for.

"You must have a neighbor…"

"Ah, the neighbors don't like him." The farmer revealed.

"So the humane society will take him in…"

"No they won't." the farmer said. "Maybe, Maybe my aunt can…"

"It wasn't a snake bite was it."

"I said I don't remember being bit." The farmer reminded.

"Sure you do, just not by a snake. I assume Kudjo bit one of your neighbors, now if he bit you, and he's got a record, he gets the chair. The good news is you just might live, the bad news is, your dog's going to die."

Dr. Mercury was trying to hold the dog back. "The guy risked his life to save this thing?"

Dr. Adam told Mercury. "I'll hold him down, you swab the mouth."

"No, I think I've got a better grip here, you grab the mouth." Mercury persuaded.

"Alright, rock, paper, scissors?" Mercury considered.

"Aw, seriously?"

"One, two, three, shoot!" They said in unison, Adam had scissors to Mercury's paper.

"Don't let go!" Mercury warned.

"Just do it!"

The dog barked close to his hands.

"I say we let the guy die." Mercury said.

"Just do it." Adam repeated.

Roman was now done coloring his drawing. He raised it up for the students to see, a circle of yellow, red, and brown. "What would you call that? It's tea colored, right?"

"The guy we thought was just after the drugs, what's the diagnosis for a guy who has tea colored piss?"

Jill answered. "Kidney stone."

"Kidney stone can cause what?"

"Blood and urine." Jill answered again.

"What color is your pee?"

"Yellow."

"What color is your blood?"

"Red."

"What colors did I use?"

"Red, yellow, and… brown."

"AND brown. And what causes brown?"

Jill answered. "Waste."

"It means the kidneys are shutting down, why?"

"Trauma." Jill continued.

"Not that his history would indicate."

Jill went on. "It could be the damage done by the self-injection."

"Prescription?"

Jill prescribed. "Heat and rest."

"Other possible causes?"

Jill kept going. "Infection."

"Start him on antibiotics, what else?"

Jill gave no answer.

"Come on come on" Roman yelled.

"I don't know." Jill conceded.

"You're useless, but at least you know it."

"Tests show an increase in Chretien Kainite, what does that tell you?"

Benjie went on. "Trauma diagnosis is correct, he takes it easy for a few days he'll be fine."

"You sure?"

Benjie tried to prove his point. "The elevated CK rules out…"

"You know what's worse than useless? Useless and oblivious."

Roman moved over to Jeff. "Do you know what they're missing?"

Jeff started. "It's kind of hard when you're in our face like this."

"Yeah, you think it will be easier with real patients, really dying?"

Roman raised his voice, "What are they missing?"

"Muscle death." Everyone turned to see Emerald standing in the back.

"Not your case." Roman mentioned.

"Nothing wrong with a consult." Emerald argued.

Jill finished answering. "Dying muscle leaks myoglobin, it's toxic to the kidneys."

"Brilliant. MRI his leg, see what's killing him."

The MRI machine moves into place where the teenage girl is on it.

"Why is the girl receiving the MRI?" Benjie asks.

"Because the neck scan proved nothing, and her doctor is way more obsessive than she thinks she is."

Emerald shifted uncomfortably in her chair.

"But you said the guy needed the MRI?" Benjie asks.

"Because Dr. Emerald back there said muscle death, not one of you said it. Not one of this guy's doctor's said it, they gave him bed rest and antibiotics just as you guys would have."

Jill sheepishly asked. "Did he get better?"

"No."

Jill asked again. "How long?"

"Three days."

It is in the nature of medicine that you guys are gonna screw up, you are gonna kill someone, if you can't handle that reality pick a different profession, or finish medical school and teach."

"Three days before they thought it might have been muscle death?" Jill asked.

"No, three days before the patient suggested it might have been muscle death."

Dr. Emerald was giving Susan some bad news. "The MRI revealed an osteosarcoma, a cancerous tumor in your femur. It needs to be removed surgically; with chemo she has an excellent chance of survival. But I have to warn you, depending on how large the tumor is, and how ingrained it is, the surgeon may need to amputate your leg, I'm sorry." Susan started to cry.

Dr. Adam was giving the farmer some news as well. "Dogs mouths are pretty filthy, but they have antibodies to keep them healthy, ones that we don't, that's why dog bites can be so nasty. A lab test of your dog's saliva revealed a strain of strep commonly known as the flesh eating disease. We'll need to operate immediately to remove the infection, we may need to remove the leg.

Cinder was giving the other man some news also. "We found a problem on the MRI, I am sorry none of the doctors found it earlier, I am personally going to oversee your treatment from now on."

"You're gonna cut me open, aren't ya?"

Cinder answered him. "We may need to remove the leg."

"His MRI showed that the pain was not caused by the self-injection, and it was not caused by an infection, it was an aneurism that clotted, leading to an infarction."

Dr. Adam quietly told Emerald. "God, you were right, it's Torchwick."

Cinder was talking to Torchwick, the patient. "We have to do the surgery. The neucrotic tissue has to be removed."

"I don't care what you find you're not taking my leg."

"We may have to remove it to save your life." Cinder conveyed.

"I like my leg. I've had it for as long as I can remember."

Selma tried to comfort him. "Honey, I love your leg, as much as you do but…"

"You're not cutting it off."

"The patient made the right choice." Torchwick told the class. "Tell a surgeon to cut a leg off and he's going to spend the night polishing his good hacksaw."

"Right, surgeons could care less about saving their limbs." Benjie agreed sarcastically.

"Of course they care about their patients, they just care about themselves more. Which is not an unreasonable position. In order to maximize the tissue you save, you also maximize the chances of something going wrong, which means you gotta be careful, which is such pain in the ass."

Cinder tried to talk him into it. "Amazing advances have been made, kids with prosthetic legs are running the 100 meter dash in 12 seconds.

"Yeah, they're just not as pretty. Do a bypass, restore the circulation."

"The amputation is safer." Cinder reminded.

"For you or me?"

"The blockage of blood flow…" Cinder started.

"Four day blockage."

Cinder agreed. "Yes, it caused muscle cell death, when those cells die, they release cytokines and potassium."

"If you restore the blood flow instead of just lopping it all off, all the crap gets washed back into my system. The cytokines will cause organ failure, and the potassium could cause cardiac arrest, on the other hand, I may just get the use of my leg back."

Cinder warned him. "The post-operative pain alone…"

"I can handle it. I understand the risks, you're in the clear. Go schedule an OR."

Cinder left. Selma came over to him. "God, you're an idiot!"

"I think I'm more of a jerk."

Selma talked to him. "I'm not being cute; I don't want you to kill yourself."

"I'm not gonna die."

"Oh, I feel completely reassured." She said sarcastically.

The three surgeries were completed.

"Agh!" Roman yelled fighting off the pain. Selma assisted him any way she could. "Thank you. Tell the doctors I need more morphine."

"They say they can't." Selma told him.

"They recommended bed rest and antibiotics."

"That doesn't mean they're wrong this time." Selma insisted.

"It doesn't mean they're right."

"Morphine will kill you." Selma told him.

"I can handle it."

"You're in pain, you're not thinking clearly."

He raised his voice. "That's why I need the damn morphine!"

"I'll talk to them." Selma then left the room.

"How much longer is the pain going to last?" Selma asked Dr. Cinder.

Cinder told her. "It depends on how much cell death there was. He could be right, he could come out of this with almost full use of his leg."

Selma asked. "Or?"

"Or he could be in pain for the rest of his life. There's a third option surgically, a middle ground between what we did and amputation. "

"Psh, he's not big on middle ground." Selma told Cinder.

That evening Torchwick was monitoring his own health. "Nurse. Nurse, I need more calcium gluconate."

The nurse said. "You just had 500 milligrams."

"It's getting wider, my potassium is rising."

"I'll talk to a doctor." The nurse told him.

"Well you better make it fast, I'm about to go into cardiac arrest. Just give me the dose, or I might die."

The nurse told him, "I might get in trouble."

"It's not a narcotic, I'm not looking for a buzz, you've got about twenty seconds." The nurse readied some medicine for him. He laid there as the machines started their alarms. "I was wrong."

"What's he got?" Cinder charged into the room.

"Cardiac arrest." The nurse told her.

"Who diagnosed him?" Cinder asked.

"He did." The nurse said.

The doctors started with the paddles. "Clear!"

Torchwick told the students. "The patient was technically dead for over a minute."

Roman saw the farmer on his farm, he had a new puppy. As he stopped at the fence, he propped up his leg to reveal a prosthetic.

Then he found himself at a volleyball game, and a young Susan serving, with both her legs intact.

Lastly he came to a point of white light.

Cinder felt a heartbeat. "He's back."

Dr. Junior spoke up. "Do you think he was dead? Do you think those experiences were real?"

"Define real? They were real experiences, what they meant, personally I choose to believe the white light people sometimes see, these visions this patient saw are all just chemical reactions while the brain shuts down."

Adam then interrupted him. "You choose to believe that?"

"There's no conclusive science, my choice adds no practical relevance to my life, I choose the outcome I find more comforting."

Emerald asked him, "You find it more comforting to believe 'this is it'?"

"I find it more comforting to believe, that this isn't just some test."

The students were quiet.

"How bad is the pain right now?" Selma asked him.

"It's bad."

"It's not getting any better. If you were right, the pain would have been subsiding." Selma said.

"It's just taking longer."

"No it's not. We've gotta let them cut the leg off." Selma pleaded.

"It's my leg, it's my life."

Selma asked him a question. "Would you give up your leg to save my life?"

"Of course!"

"Then why do you think your life is worth less than mine?" She asked. "If this was any other patient what would you tell them to do?"

"I would say it's their choice."

Selma scoffed. "Like hell you would, you'd brow beat them until they made the right choice. You'd shove it in their face; it's just a damn leg. You don't think you deserve to live? You don't think you deserve to be happy? Now let them cut off your leg."

"I can't, I can't, I'm sorry."

"The pain alone is gonna kill you." Selma told him.

"I know, I know… I need you to talk to the doctor."

Cinder came to talk to Selma in the waiting room. "He change his mind?"

Selma smirked. "No, he's asked to be put in a chemically induced coma so he can sleep through the worst of the pain."

Cinder said. "We can do that."

"What happens after he's in the coma?" Selma asked.

"We'll obviously monitor his condition closely and if he can get through the next 48 hours without another cardiac incident…" Cinder said halfheartedly.

"I meant I'm his healthcare proxy, I get to make medical decisions for him if he's unable to." Selma told her.

"You should talk to him…" Cinder tried.

"I know what he wants, but if he's out, it's my call." Selma said.

The two gave subtle nods of agreement.

Cinder gave him the coma inducing drug. "You'll be out in less than a minute."

"Thank you." He moved his head to talk to Selma. "Hey."

"Hey." She responded.

"I'll see you when I wake up?"

She gave him a nod.

"We'll go golfing."

She laughed.

"I love you."

"I love you too. I'm sorry." She told him before he was out.

She went to talk to Cinder. "That middle ground you were talking about?"

"We go in, we take out the dead muscle, there's still some risk of injury but…" Cinder told her.

"Give me the forms to sign." Selma ordered.

Cinder tried to comfort her. "You're saving his life."

"He won't see it that way."

Roman sat in front of the crowd of students. "Because of the extent of the muscle removed, the utility of the patient's leg was severely compromised, because of the time delay in making the diagnosis, the patient continues to suffer chronic pain."

"She had no right to do that." Jill states.

Benjie retorted. "She had the proxy.

Jill defended. "She knew he didn't want the proxy."

"She saved his life." Benjie argued.

Jeff chimed in. "We don't know that, maybe he would have been fine."

"It doesn't matter it's the patient's call." Jill said.

"The patient's an idiot." Benjie stated.

Roman chuckled. "They usually are. Hey what time does this class end?"

"Twenty minutes ago." Cinder told him from the hall.

"I'm not doing this again." He said as he walked to her and by the front desk. "And this guy is not the 'world's greatest dad' he's not even ranked. Who the hell let's their kids play with lead based paint. That's why he's always sick, get him some plastic cups and the class is all his again."

All the students slowly got up and left in silence.

He walked down the hallway. He got on the phone. "Hey Selma, it's Roman, I've got an opening in my calendar for 10 tomorrow morning, make sure your husband isn't late." Roman ended the message.

And with that he walked through the door to his office.

On the door read: Roman Torchwick M.D. Department of Diagnostic Medicine


End file.
